Upon the witness of these gentlemen, This marvel to you.

НАМ.

For God's love, let me hear. HOR. Two nights together had these gentlemen, Marcellus and Bernardo, on their watch,

In the dead vast and middle of the night,
Been thus encounter'd. A figure like your father,
Armed at point, exactly, cap-à-pé,
Appears before them, and with solemn march
Goes slow and stately by them: thrice he walk'd
By their oppress'd and fear-surprised eyes,
Within his truncheon's length; whilst they, dis-
till'de

Almost to jelly with the act of fear,

Stand dumb, and speak not to him. This to me
In dreadful secrecy impart they did;
And I with them the third night kept the watch:
Where, as they had deliver'd, both in time,
Form of the thing, each word made true and good,
The apparition comes. I knew your father;
These hands are not more like.

HAM.

But where was this? MAR. My lord, upon the platform where we watch'd.

HAM. Did you not speak to it?
HOR.

My lord, I did;
But answer made it none: yet once methought
It lifted up his head, and did address
Itself to motion, like as it would speak:
But, even then, the morning cock crew loud;
And at the sound it shrunk in haste away,
And vanish'd from our sight.

HAM. 'Tis very strange. HOR. As I do live, my honour'd lord, 'tis true And we did think it writ down in our duty To let you know of it.

HAM. Indeed, indeed, sirs, but this troubles

b Armed at point, exactly, cap-à-pé,-] So all the quartos but that of 1603; which has, "Armed to poynt," &c.: the folio reads, -"Arm'd at all points."

c-distill'd-] The reading of the quartos. The folio gives -"bestil'd;" and Mr. Collier's annotator substitutes bechill'd. d It lifted up his head,-] From the quarto of 1603. The other quartos and the folio have," it head."

HAM. Pale or red?

HOR. Nay, very pale. HAM.

And fix'd his eyes upon you?

HOR. Most constantly.
НАМ.
I would I had been there.
HOR. It would have much amaz'd you.
HAM. Very like, very like.-Stay'd it long?
HOR. While one with moderate haste might
tell a hundred.

MAR., BER. Longer, longer.
HOR. Not when I saw it.
HAM.
His beard was grizzled,*-no?
HOR. It was, as I have seen it in his life,
A sable silvered.

HAM.

I'll watch to-night;
Perchance, 't will walk† again.
HOR.
I warrant you it will.
HAM. If it assume my noble father's person,
I'll speak to it, though hell itself should gape,
And bid me hold my peace. I pray you all,
If you have hitherto conceal'd this sight,
Let it be tenable in your silence still;
And whatsoever else shall hap to-night,
Give it an understanding, but no tongue;
I will requite your loves. So, fare ye well:
Upon the platform, 'twixt eleven and twelve,
I'll visit you.

ALL.
HAM. Your love, as mine to you: farewell.
[Exeunt HORATIO, MARCELLUS, and
BERNARDO.

Our duty to your honour.

My father's spirit in arms! all is not well;

I doubt some foul play: would the night were

come!

Till then sit still, my soul: foul deeds will rise, Though all the earth o'erwhelm them to men's eyes!

SCENE III-A Room in Polonius' House.

Enter LAEBTES and OPHELIA.

LAER. My necessaries are embark'd; farewell:
And, sister, as the winds give benefit,
And convoy is assistant, do not sleep,
But let me hear from you.

ОРН.
Do you doubt that?
LAER. For Hamlet, and the trifling of his
favours,

Hold it a fashion, and a toy in blood;
A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward,* not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and† suppliance of a minute;
No more.

OPH. No more but so?
LAER.

Think it no more:
For nature, crescent, does not grow alone
In thews and bulk; but, as this temple waxes,
The inward service of the mind and soul
Grows wide withal. Perhaps he loves you now;
And now no soil nor cautel doth besmirch
The virtue of his will: but you must fear,
His greatness weigh'd, his will is not his own;
For he himself is subject to his birth:
He may not, as unvalu'd persons do,
Carve for himself; for on his choice depends
The safety and the health of the whole state;f
And therefore must his choice be circumscrib'd
Unto the voice and yielding of that body,
Whereof he is the head. Then if he says he
loves you,

It fits your wisdom so far to believe it,
As he in his particular act and place ]]
May give his saying deed; which is no further
Than the main voice of Denmark goes withal.
Then weigh what loss your honour may sustain,
If with too credent ear you list his songs;
Or lose your heart; or your chaste treasure open
To his unmaster'd importunity.

Fear it, Ophelia, fear it, my dear sister;

(*) First folio, grisly.

(+) First folio, wake.

(1) First folio, treble.

() First folio, Froward. (1) First folio, his.

(+) First folio omits, perfume and. (5) First folio, feare. (1) First folio, peculiar Sect and force.

** 411. Our duties to your honor.

Ham. O your loves, your loves, as mine to you."

And the hurried repetition, "your loves, your loves," well expresses the perturbation of Hamlet at the moment, and that feverish impatience to be alone and commune with himself which he evinces whenever he is particularly moved. dcautel- Crafty circumspection.

e The virtue of his will:} Firtue here seems to import essential goodness; as we speak of the virtues of herbs, &c.

f The safety and the health of the whole state;] In the quarto of 1604, we get,-" The safety and health," &c.; "safety "being pronounced as a trisyllable. In the folio the line stands,

"The sanctify and health of the wreole State."

A double blessing is a double grace;
Occasion smiles upon a second leave.

POL. Yet here, Lacrtes! aboard, aboard, for shame!

The wind sits in the shoulder of your sail, And you are stay'd for. There, my blessing with you!

[Laying his hand on LAERTES' head. And these few precepts in thy memory See thou charácter. Give thy thoughts no tongue, Nor any unproportion'd thought his act. Be thou familiar, but by no means vulgar. The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel;" But do not dull thy palm with entertainment Of each new-hatch'd,§ unfledg'd comrade. Beware Of entrance to a quarrel; but being in, Bear't, that the opposed may beware of thee. Give every man thine ear, but few thy voice:

Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,
But not express'd in fancy; rich, not gaudy:
For the apparel oft proclaims the man ;
And they in France of the best rank and station
Are of a most select and generous sheaf" in that.
Neither a borrower nor a lender be:
For loan oft loses both itself and friend,
And borrowing dulls the edge of husbandry.
This above all,-—to thine ownself be true;
And it must follow, as the night the day,
Thou canst not then be false to any man.
Farewell; my blessing season this in thee!
LAER. Most humbly do I take my leave, my

POL. What is 't, Ophelia, he hath said to you? OPH. So please you, something touching the lord Hamlet.

POL. Marry, well bethought:

'Tis told me, he hath very oft of late Given private time to you; and you yourself Have of your audience been most free and bounteous:

If it be so, (as so 't is put on me,

And that in way of caution) I must tell you,
You do not understand yourself so clearly,
As it behoves my daughter and your honour.
What is between you? give me up the truth.
ОPн. He hath, my lord, of late made many
tenders

Of his affection to me.

POL. Affection pooh! you speak like a green girl,

Unsifted in such perilous circumstance.
Do you believe his tenders, as you call them?

"Are most select and generous, chief in that;" and his emendation has been generally adopted: Steevens proposed,"Select and generous, are most choice in that;" while Mr. Collier's annotator has,

"Are of a most select and generous choice in that." The slight change of "sheaf" for chiefe or cheff, a change for which we alone are answerable, seems to impart a better and more poetic meaning to the passage than any variation yet suggested; and it is supported, if not established, by the following extracts from Ben Jonson,

"Ay, and with assurance, That it is found in noblemen and gentlemen Of the best sheaf."

The Magnetic Lady, Act III. Sc. 4.

"I am so haunted at the court and at my lodging with your refined choice spirits, that it makes me clean of another garb, another sheaf."-Every Man out of his Humour, Act II. Sc. 1. z 2

Or, not to crack the wind of the poor phrase,
Running it thus,-you'll tender me a fool.

OPH. My lord, he hath impórtun'd me with love, In honourable fashion.

POL. Ay, fashion you may call it; go to, go to. OPII. And hath given countenance to his speech, my lord,

With almost all the holy vows of heaven.+

POL. Ay, springes to catch woodcocks. I do know,

When the blood burns, how prodigal the soul
Lends the tongue vows: these blazes, daughter,
Giving more light than heat,-extinct in both,
Even in their promise, as it is a-making,—
You must not take for fire. From§ this time,
daughter,

Be somewhat scanter of your maiden presence;
Set your entreatments at a higher rate,
Than a command to parley. For lord Hamlet,
Believe so much in him, that he is young;
And with a larger tether may he walk,
Than may be given you: in few, Ophelia,
Do not believe his vows; for they are brokers;
Not of that dyob which their investments show,
But mere implorators of unholy suits,
Breathing like sanctified and pious bonds,
The better to beguile. This is for all,—

I would not, in plain terms, from this time forth,
Have you so slander any moment leisure,
As to give words or talk with the lord Hamlet.
Look to 't, I charge you: come your ways.
OPн. I shall obey, my lord.

SCENE IV. The Platform.

[Exeunt.

MAR. No, it is struck.

HOR. Indeed? I heard it not: it then draws near the season

Wherein the spirit held his wont to walk. [A flourish of trumpets within, and ordnance shot off.

What does this mean, my lord?

HAM. The king doth wake to-night, and tak his rouse,

Keeps wassail, and the swaggering up-spri reels ;(7)

And, as he drains his draughts of Rhenis down,

The kettle-drum and trumpet thus bray out
The triumph of his pledge.
HOR.

Is it a custom?

HAм. Ay, marry, is't: But to my mind, though I am native here, And to the manner born,-it is a custom More honour'd in the breach than the observare This heavy-headed revel, east and west Makes us traduc'd and tax'd of other nations : They clepe us drunkards, and with swinis phrase

Soil our addition; and, indeed, it takes From our achievements, though perform'd height,

The pith and marrow of our attribute.
So, oft it chances in particular men,

That for some vicious mole of nature in them,
As, in their birth, (wherein they are not guilty,
Since nature cannot choose his origin)
By the c'ergrowth of some complexion,
Oft breaking down the pales and forts

reason;

Or by some habit, that too much o'er-leavens The form of plausive manners;—that the

men,

Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect, Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,— Theirs virtues else (be they as pure as grace, As infinite as man may undergo)

Shall in the general censure take corruption From that particular fault :(8) the dram of eale

(+) First folio, wassels. (§) Old text, His, corrected by Theoba employed to denote a shade of colour,

“With an eye of green in "L"-The Tempest, Act I. Sc. 2,may possibly be right.

* — jade Rencari and pirus donds-] So the old editions ame time we vir Sarasty in favour of Theobald's alterat barda fe dends," we are now persuaded the old text is r 4 — sander any moment leirent.”—That is, abuse, &c. Mo ei tres, with the exception of Mr. Dyce, all deviate slightly in ne by reading, “— moment's leisure." • Man-beaded mer $0. From these words inclusi The Teamber of the speech is omitted in the folio.

Let me not burst in ignorance! but tell
Why thy canoniz'd bones, hearsed in death,
Have burst their cerements! why the sepulchre,
Wherein we saw thee quietly in-urn'd,
Hath op'd his ponderous and marble jaws,
To cast thee up again! What may this mean,
That thou, dead corse, again in cómplete steel,
Revisit'st thus the glimpses of the moon,
Making night hideous; and we fools of nature
So horridly to shake our disposition,
With thoughts beyond the reaches of our souls?
Say, why is this? wherefore? what should we do?
[Ghost beckons HAMLET.
HOR. It beckons you to go away with it,
As if it some impartment did desire
To you alone.

was a mistake for "of't corrupt." Mr. W. N. Lettsom, too, observes, "a verb I should think must lurk under the corruption, a doubt,' or doubt,' with the signification of turn, pervert, corrupt, or the like;" and Dr. Ingleby writes, "I am convinced that 'of a doubt' is a misprint for derogate,' for 1st, of a doubt' and ' derogate' have the same number of letters; 2nd, they have the o, a, d, and t in common; and 3rd, derogate' is the only verb that at the same time completes the sense and preserves the metre." The suggestion of derogate" is ingenious; but may not the construction have been this,-"The dram of base (or ill, or bale, or lead, or whatsoever word the compositor tortured into "eale" or "ease") doth (i.e. doeth, worketh,) all the noble substance of a pound to its own vileness"? We by no means pretend that pound was the actual word misrendered "doubt; it is inserted merely because it occurs in opposition to "dram" in a line of Quarles' "Emblems," b. ii. E. 7,

"Where ev'ry dram of gold contains a pound of dross,"and because it is extremely probable some such antithesis was intended here.